Tuesday 4 October North
Wales
Railway
Circle Slate Railways of North Wales. David
Gwyn, industrial archaeologist, author of The Slate and other
publications and fireman on The Bala Lake Railway returns to The Vic by
popular demand with a further offering "New research on the slate
railways of North Wales 1796-1848"

Wednesday 5 October RCTS Liverpool
Stephen Gay - Railways in a Cornish Landscape. Stephen is from
Sheffield and a celebrated photographer. He returns to the Branch to
give one of his presentations based on his walking tours covering the
past and present railway scene. Friday 7 October Clwyd Railway
Circle
Ron’s Wanderings for Main Line Steam. A collection of film clips
covering main line steam and preserved lines by Ron Watson-Jones

Monday 17 October RCTS
Chester
John Sloane: Sheds Part 2. John, from Parbold, is a member of the
Lancs & North West Branch and is also the LCGB North West Branch
Chairman. His nostalgic shed shots are accompanied by an insight into
how each shed operated.

Friday 28 October Great
Western
Society
North
West
Branch. Railway Personnel. Paul Shackcloth.November 2016Tuesday 1 November North Wales Railway Circle
North Wales Steam Days and Early Diesels.
Prolific local railway photographer Barry Wynne presents a selection of
photographs from his vast archive that he took in steam days in North
Wales and also covers first generation diesels

Friday 4 November Clwyd Railway
Circle
Development of German Electric Locomotives. An illustrated description
of the principal designs from the Siemens Demonstrator of 1879 to the
latest members of the Eurosprinter & TRAXX families, covering their
inception, technical features and service history by Ian Mainprize

Monday 21 November RCTS
Chester
Revd. Canon Brian Arman: Railway Roundabout. Brian, the Society’s
President, is from Bristol and another man of the cloth who is a
railway enthusiast. His presentation starts and finishes in Gloucester
via Bristol, Bournemouth, London and Birmingham.

Monday 19 December RCTS
Chester
John Hobbs: North Wales in Black & White.John lives in
Warrington
and is well known for his presentations covering the final years of
steam in North Wales and around the north west. He is a member of the
Branch and is actively involved in railway preservation.

January 2017

Tuesday 3 January North
Wales
Railway
Circle
Secretary’s Evening. North Wales Railway Circle Secretary, Peter
Hanahoe, presents a selection of his vast catalogue of photographs he
has taken on the international railway scene.

Friday 6 January Clwyd Railway
Circle The Ffestiniog Railway. A short
history featuring FR steam locomotives and a trip up the line using
photographs from the 60's onwards. By Geoff Coward

Monday 16 January RCTS
Chester
AGM - Followed by John Feild with a slide presentation Non-members are
welcome after 20.15 hours for John’s presentation which will
cover our Branch’s 2016 outdoor visits and other topical items. He is a
long standing RCTS member and now President of the Branch.

Wednesday 1 February RCTS
Liverpool
Mark Youdan. North West Railway Photography, 1995-2015. Mark, a Branch
member, is a Driver/Trainer for Arriva Rail North and held the same
position with Northern Trains.

Friday 3 February Clwyd Railway
Circle BR Steam - The Splendid Years
(1959-65 in B&W) Steam around the regions in the early 60’s by John
Sloane.

Tuesday 7 February North Wales Railway Circle
Birkenhead to The Coast. North Wales Railway Circle life member Ken
Owen entertains us with a selection of pictures starting in Birkenhead,
visiting his home town of Wrexham and traveling via his present home
Redhill to Eastbourne and Margate on the South Coast.

Monday 20 February RCTS
Chester
Fred Kirk: Leicester Area Steam Days. Fred, from Leicester, spent a lot
of his time bicycling around with his camera at the ready to various
locations on all the main lines within reasonable reach of his home.

Friday 3 March Clwyd
Railway
Circle Amlwch Branch Line and Annual
General Meeting Chairman of the Lein Amlwch - Central Anglesey Railway
Company, Walter Glyn Davies will give a presentation on the
progress
of the lines revival. The talk will be followed by the Annual General
Meeting.

Tuesday 7 March North
Wales
Railway
Circle The Abergele Accident. Tony
Griffiths gives a talk on the accident that occurred on 20th August
1868 at Abergele involving the Irish Mail and a part of a goods train
that was being shunted.

Monday 20 March RCTS
Chester
Paul Chancellor. A Colour-Rail Presentation. Paul, from
Bromsgrove,
is owner of Colour-Rail and will highlight the work of many fine
railway photographers covering the better part of 70 years. He is also
the RO Editor for the ‘Preservation and Other Railways’ section.

Tuesday 4 April North Wales Railway Circle
Bangor to Hong Kong by
Rail. Adam Fetherstonhaugh gives an account of his epic journey by rail
from Bangor to Hong Kong via Beijing and then on to Vietnam and
Cambodia.

Wednesday 5 April RCTS
Liverpool
David Rapson. Railways - The Digital Effect David, who lives in
Connah's Quay, has worked on the railways for many years spending a lot
of his life in Control positions and now works for West Coast Railway
Company. He is also a Branch member and for those who read Rail Express
will be aware of his contributions.

Friday 7 April Clwyd
Railway
Circle Railways of North Cheshire in
Early BR Days Being a Manchester lad, Russell Hatt was able to capture
the busy scenes around his home area.

Monday 24 April RCTS
Chester
George Jones : Onwards to Corwen.George lives in Wrexham and for
many
years has been an important publicist for the Llangollen Railway and
certain of its locomotives. He will cover the railway’s reinvigoration
of the line to Corwen and look at its future
prospects.

Tuesday 2 May North
Wales
Railway
Circle AGM and Annual Photographic
Competition. The Annual General Meeting of The North Wales
Railway
Circle will be followed by the annual photographic competition.
Members are invited to submit their work in three categories, prints,
slides and video. Video to be kept reasonably short, approx. 5
mins.
In line with Circle rules all work should have been taken in the last
12 months.

We hope you enjoy
this extra catch-up issue. The next update - including the FR/WHR
superpower event - will be on the evening of Tuesday 20 September.
Thanks as always to all readers and contributors. - Charlie

68s on the Coast

On 8 August, a pair of Class 46 locos stood in for the HST measurement
train on a run to Holyhead and back. 68 005 led through Llandudno
Junction (Peter Lloyd)

Bagillt on the return, with 68 005. Picture by Russell Withington, who
writes: 'It was booked as an HST but even before I saw it I could tell
from the noise that was was going to come round the trees wasn’t
going to be Class 43 hauled. What did appear had a considerably better
power to weight ratio! ... While I would have preferred the HST, having
seen it spread around
Derby RTC the previous weekend, this was a pretty good substitute.'

68 017Hornet led on the return journey,
photographed by Bob Greenhalgh.

Open Day at Padeswood - report by Barrie Hughes

Having lived in Buckley for many years in the 60-70s I had never
visited Padeswood Cement Works despite occasional Open Days in the
past. I heard about this year’s 3 September Open Day via the internet
and combined a visit with several other activities in the area, now a
long drive from Northamptonshire. It was already raining heavily
(earlier than promised by the Met Office!) at 10:30 when the site
opened. A land train (above) was provided for a tour of the site.
However the road train did not visit the sidings area still used by a -
sometimes - weekly coal train from the Killoch Coal Disposal Point on
the A70, a branch line west from Ayr. Hansons no longer have any
outgoing cement traffic unlike the previous owners Castle Cement. The
plant shuts down for winter maintenance in January and sometimes at
Easter according to demand for cement and so fewer trains might operate
at this time.

The siting of the factory, one of several built by the post-World War 2
Labour Government in the late 1940s for reconstruction of the country,
remains obscure. It had no water, drawing water from a special artesian
well dug nearby at Kinnerton. Limestone has to be imported from several
miles away by lorry from quarries in Halkyn Limestone ridge which
extends south along the Welsh border ... the current quarry is
currently southwest of Mold near Maeshafn. The main criterion seems to
have been that the site was next to the a railway for bringing in raw
materials and exporting products. While there has been nearby opencast
coal and limestone quarries, there does not appear to have been any use
made of rail for this purpose this century. The cement works
burns a number of fuels including bone meal and industrial waste in a
modern high tower complex built in the early 2000s. Sensors
continuously monitor the waste gases and automatically shut down the
burners if agreed pollutant levels are exceeded. The control room
(above) looks very space age!

Currently a four-track rail yard lies alongside the Wrexham - Bidston
line and trains that have reversed at Wrexham shunt back into this yard
from nearer Buckley Junction. It does not appear there are any
run-round facilities in the yard. The wagons were then dragged forward
by the hired in Class 08 shunter to be unloaded by grab in an east-west
siding near the circular storage building. There is plenty of evidence
of former east-west rail sidings in the works and Google Earth provides
some idea of the site with four pictures of the sidings and trains from
2010.

There was a two-road loco shed at the South West corner of the site and
the two east-west sidings are still visible in the concrete roadways at
various locations. It is possible the train engine drags to the
unloading point these days and then runs to Shotwick sidings at Shotton
Steelworks to run round before returning to Wrexham and heading north
again. This picture shows disused double track in the access road near
the main control centre. The two road shed for the Castle Cement
shunters was to the left.

Disused tracks near the loading bays at the north of the side: these
are in line with the current coal unloading point.

An old road roller previously in Castle Cement ownership.

An old 'Castle Cement' Presflo wagon is mounted on a plinth at the
Padeswood Works entrance.

Notes and Queries from our 'Postbag'

Lee Evans writes: 'I am a long time follower of the site, and in
particular always keep an eye out for any historical photos which may
have included my grandfather Owen "Muggins" Evans who retired
as a guard based at Holyhead in around 1992. I wonder whether anyone
has any photographs (or tales) they would like to share as I believe he
was quite a character.'

We've been asked if we can trace any photographs of the siding which
served Llandudno Junction brickworks, seen above in a map
extract from 1913. The works, operated by Edward Boase &
Sons, closed in 1957, although some of the buildings, including a
'15" diameter x 36"
stroke single-cylinder horizontal steam engine' reportedly (Keith
Jaggers, 1978) were still there in the 1970s. The siding was
truncated at the brickworks boundary (and possibly used for storage of
redundant rolling stock), while the brick pit became a lake, later
filled in with refuse and in use by a scrapyard and other industrial
units. If current
plans
come to fruition, these will soon be replaced by a new
superstore, a petrol station and four restaurants.

It seems unlikely that any pictures exist, but if you can help, please
get in touch.

On the subject of Llandudno Junction, Roly High writes: 'Looking at the
photo Jim Ikin took of the Station Hotel at Llandudno Junction
(5 September issue) reminds me of the tale that it is known locally as
"The Killer" because in steam days,the railway staff from Llandudno
Junction shed used to "kill" time in there before going on duty!'
Perhaps someone can tell us more.

Tom Nicholls of Carshalton & Sutton Model Railway Club is
interested in the (somewhat off-topic but interesting) subject of
shunting of locos at Barry Scrapyard. He writes:

I am looking for photos or film of shunting and
removal of steam locomotives at Barry Scrapyard. From simply observing
the locomotives and their positions over some time, from photos, it
becomes clear that there were from time to time considerable movement
(up until the middle 1980s). As a railway modeller by hobby I am
interested in recreating the feel of the scrapyard and replicate the
types of movements that took place in the 1970s as locos were removed
for preservation ad am currently researching a project to make a small
layout.

I would be grateful for any links, material, or suggestions as to where
else to look, that you might be able to assist with. I confirm that I
am a private individual with no connection to any commercial
organisation and any material would be respected in terms of copyright,
would be for my own use, and not reproduced.

If you can help, we'll pass on your message.

Picture News

A Virgin Super Voyager (221 111Roald Amundsen?) passes
through Rhyl on the Down Fast Line
with the 11.10 from London Euston to Bangor on 1 September. This was
the first special in conjunction with the start of the 'Festival No 6'
at Pormeirion. The 11:10 London Euston - Chester was specially extended
to carry the festival-goers, who had benefited from discounted fare
offers, running non-stop running between Chester and Bangor. In the
siding, resident Tampers DR 73117 and DR 77907.

Those who came by car probably wished they had used the train, as the
land used for car parking became flooded and chaos ensued at the end of
the the event.

The Railway Magazine in conjunction with DRS and Virgin ran a charity
excursion on 3 September from Chester to Scarborough, dubbed 'The
Independent Yorkshireman' to reflect the fact that used the normally
freight-only Independent Line which by-pass Crewe station, as well as
various other interesting sections of track including the new Norton
Bridge flyover and the Hazel Grove - Northenden line. Steve Morris
photographed the train at Winsford, having reversed at Stafford. 37 604
and 37 603 were in charge from Stafford to Scarborough.

57 309Pride of Crewe, which had led from Chester
to Stafford via Alsager, was on the rear. DRS provided their trademark
buffer adornments.

St Peters Square station on Manchester Metrolink is back in service
after a period of closure for re-building, but so far only the two
platforms serving the Mosley Street line. The new 'second city
crossing' from here to Exchange Square is on schedule for opening early
in 2017 (Greg Mape).

West Coast Railways 37 669, newly fitted with Hitachi ERTMS
signalling equipment, following sister loco 37 668's fitting some time
ago, made test runs between Machynlleth (above) and Dovey Junction on
the night of 7/8 September. Note the new footbridge. Picture by Richard
W.
Jones - many more on Richard's
Flickr
site.

67s and 68s, 3 September - report by Barrie Hughes

After leaving Padeswood Works (see above) it was off to Hattons to buy
67 003 in ATW livery then back to Chester to sample the real thing as
the 'Gerald' stock was being used on relief services for a second
weekend. Above, the train arrives at Chester with 1K50 from
Llandudno which took me to Crewe.

67002 at Crewe ... still raining and not many takers for the 16:05
Crewe - Llandudno (1D50).

Whilst waiting an hour for the return service a triple-header light
engine Class 68 working from Wembley and pulled into the south bay
before reversing to Gresty Lane depot. This view shows 68 019
Brutus, one of the newest, that led the rake back to Gresty Bridge
depot. It was a nice touch that the driver acceded to a request from
some parents to allow a small boy to cab the loco while it was
stationary in the bay.

The rear loco that led from Wembley, 68 013. The intermediate
loco was 68 010.

67 002 at Chester with red lights on at 19:15, presumably for some
manoeuvre. It was set to haul the 19:52 Chester – Holyhead 1D60 later
so was probably being shunted to a siding to clear platform 4.

Busy half hour at Bagillt (etc) - with Russell Withington

I had a spare couple of hours between applying coats of paint to the
dining room walls and window sill on 31 August so nipped down to
Bagillt bridge. First up was a stoneblower, travelling from Llandudno
Junction to Coleham (above), followed by an Arriva DMU (not
photographed) ...

... and straight after that DR 73108, a tamper/liner,
heading the same way from Rhyl Carriage Sidings.

No sooner had this passed westbound than 67 015 appeared on its
way to Holyhead, with Mk 3s 12177, 12178, 12184, and DVT 82308
bringing up the rear. Not bad for just under 30 minutes.

Went for lunch, did some more painting, then decided to go back to
Flint to catch 'the DfT' as it entered the station under the
footbridge, obviously now with the Driving Van Trailer 82308 leading -
a shame that the sun had decided to hide behind the clouds for a few
minutes.

Narrow Gauge Miscellany

On the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway
on 31 August, Former GWR loco 822The Earl takes on
water at Welshpool Raven Square prior to departing with the
11.15am service to Llanfair Caereinion ...

... and on arrival at Llanfair Caereinion prepares to run round its
train (Martin Evans).

The Bank Holiday gala at the Bala
Lake
Railway was judged an excellent weekend, well patronised with
great weather and a busy timetable of passenger, mixed and freight
trains. Volunteer BLR staff member Bob Greenhalgh sends these
views from 29 August. Above, at Llangower loop, Velinheli and Diana
wait for a Bala-bound train to pass.

Also at Llangower, Velinheli and Diana wait as Alice
and Maid Marian head for Bala. Dry weather is especially
welcome
to drivers of these open-cab locos!

Llanuwchllyn. Diana, Velinheli, Winifred, Maid
Marian, Holy War and Alice coupled together and
ready to depart.

The Llanberis Lake Railway on 11 September: quarry Hunslet Elidir
at work on the afternoon service trains, showing off its sparkling
paint finish (Larry Davies).